Sidelines: Another honor for Broyles

Friday

Jul 19, 2013 at 7:02 PMJul 19, 2013 at 7:05 PM

Former Miner assistant to be inducted into Kansas Sports Hall of Fame for his work at Pittsburg State.

Dave Roberts

Chuck Broyles, who directed perhaps the greatest defense in the history of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) while at Missouri S&T (then Missouri-Rolla), will be inducted into another hall of fame.

Broyles, who gained his greatest fame as a national champion-winning head coach at Pittsburg State, will be one of eight inductees into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 6 in Wichita, Kan.

Broyles, age 66, spent two stints as an assistant football coach at S&T – 1974-82, 1986-87. During his first stint here, which lasted13 years, he was defensive coordinator for the Miners when they were the top football program in the MIAA.

The Miners won three league championships and had a string of nine consecutive winning seasons during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Of course, Broyles' finest defense here was the 1980 squad, which finished 10-0 and ranked 10th in the final NCAA Division II national poll that season. The Miners led the nation in both rushing defense - allowing around 30 rushing yards per game - and interceptions that year.

Broyles was inducted into the S&T Sports Hall of Fame as part of that squad. Two years ago he was inducted into the Pittsburg State Hall of Fame.

Broyles, a native of Mulberry, Kan., returned to his alma-mater Pittsburg State – he was an All-America lineman for the Gorillas in 1968 – as an assistant coach under Dennis Franchione in 1988 and was there the rest of his coaching career.

He took over as Pittsburg State head coach in 1990 and continued to build the Gorillas into a NCAA Division II power.

Under Broyles PSU compiled a 198-47-2 record over 20 seasons, reaching the national playoffs in 15 of those campaigns. His Gorillas appeared in four NCAA Division II national championship games and won the national title in 1991. He is a three-time Division II National Coach of the Year winner.

Broyles passed his good friend and former head coach with the Miners, the late Charlie Finley, as the MIAA's all-time winningest coach. His .806 winning percentage ranks third all-time in NCAA Division II history.

Ironically, when Broyles coached PSU to the national crown in 1991 the squad finished 13-1-1, with one of the two blemishes coming in a stunning tie to the Miners, in Finley's final season as head coach.

Also Pittsburg State Athletic Director, Broyles resigned both his administrative and coaching duties at Pittsburg State in 2009.

In the early 1970s Broyles was an assistant coach at Wichita's Bishop Carroll High School, where he coached Bell, who went on to an All-America career at Colorado State and was later the top draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in 1979.